Two meat plants suspected of breaking the EU's
worldwide ban on exports of British beef were closed by the Government
yesterday after it received threats of legal action from Europe.
The EU Commission had also said that the alleged
breaches were thwarting efforts to lift the restrictions even though
the Government, farmers and the meat industry are currently fighting
in the European Court to have the ban declared illegal.

Jack Cunningham, Minister of Agriculture, said he
had ordered the "immediate" closure of the plants after inquiries by
the ministry's special investigations team and the commission's
anti-fraud unit in Brussels.

He refused to name the businesses but it is
understood that one is a meat cutting plant in Hoddesdon,
Hertfordshire Heine and the other a cold-store in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire Safex

Dr Cunningham said: "We have uncovered very poor
hygiene standards, meat which isn't properly labelled, meat which has
apparently been labelled with documents from other countries and a
whole number of other completely unsatisfactory activities. Operations
of this kind involve risks to the public. I am determined to crack
down hard on anyone who runs risks with public safety. I am
serving notices on two companies requiring them to stop the relevant
business immediately."

The ban was imposed 16 months ago following fears of
a link between BSE and a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in
young people. The commission said its veterinary inspectors had
uncovered evidence which "confirmed suspicions" of an export fraud and
accused Britain of failing to police the ban effectively.

It claimed that about 1,600 tonnes has recently been
exported to Holland, some of it seized by Dutch officials, and the
rest exported to Russia and Egypt after being re-labelled as Belgian
meat. This enabled traders to fraudulently claim EU export subsidies.
There have also been claims that British soldiers were involved in
smuggling beef from Ulster to the Continent. Britain claims to have
made 14,000 spot-checks on lorries leaving British ports to prevent
beef shipments.

Dr Cunningham flies to Strasbourg today to give
evidence to the European Parliament's committee of inquiry into the
beef crisis. Sources in Brussels and Strasbourg said last night that
he had been "bounced" into closing the plants after warnings from
Franz Fischler, EU agriculture commissioner, and Emma Bonino, EU
commissioner for consumer affairs, that they would expose them first
if he didn't.

Mr Fischler told a meeting of farmers in Wales on
Friday that the "illegal" exports were undermining efforts to reassure
consumers about the safety of beef. He said: "It is essential that
member states redouble their efforts to ensure proper control.
Clearly, the United Kingdom has a key role to play in this respect.
Indeed, there is a vital interest at stake since a breach of the
export ban does not bring any closer the day when consumer confidence
is fully restored."

The suspect beef was apparently seized in May, but
details of the discovery were suppressed during a police investigation
in Britain, Holland and Belgium.

Behind the scenes, Britain is furious with the way
the commission has appeared to hijack the investigation to answer
severe criticism from the European Parliament that it wasn't doing
enough to tighten safeguards for consumers.

Senior Whitehall officials say a series of leaks
about the inquiry jeopardised a joint operation involving Britain, the
commission, Holland and other EU countries and put at risk chances of
bringing prosecutions for a range of alleged offences.

The ministry said: "We have given our full
cooperation to the commission throughout. We have been working on this
for a number of weeks and action has been taken as soon as possible to
prevent further activities. Inquiries are continuing."

The Department of Health is today issuing the latest monthly table,
giving the numbers of deaths of definite and probable cases of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the UK. The next table will be published on 4 August 1997.

Referals

Sporadic

Iatrogenic

Familial

GSS

nvCJD

Total

1985

-

26

1

1

0

-

28

1986

-

26

0

0

0

-

26

1987

-

23

0

0

1

-

24

1988

-

21

1

1

0

-

23

1989

-

28

2

2

0

-

32

1990

53

27

5

0

0

-

32

1991

75

32

1

3

0

-

36

1992

96

44

2

4

1

-

51

1993

78

38

4

2

2

-

46

1994

116

52

1

3

3

-

59

1995

86

34

4

2

3

3

46

1996

129

38

4

2

3

10

57

1997

54

5

1

1

0

5

12

(To 31 May 1997. Plus one case of definite nvCJD still alive. Total
number of definite and probable cases of nvCJD = 19 [Plus one confirmed case in France.]

Research into link between nvCJD AND BSE - Publication of latest scientific advice

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH press release of Tuesday 1st July 1997

Further advice from the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee
on the scientific evidence on the possibility of a link between
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease, was published today.
In answer to a Parliamentary Question from Terry Rooney MP, Frank
Dobson, Secretary of State for Health, said:

"SEAC considered this issue at their meeting on 23 May 1997 and have
since produced a statement entitled `Research Into The Link Between
BSE and nvCJD' (SEAC, June 1997).

"The statement summarises the key research results on the question of
whether there is a causal link between BSE and nvCJD which have
emerged since March 1996 when SEAC first concluded that the most
likely explanation for the cases of the new variant CJD was exposure
to BSE before the introduction of the Spongiform Bovine Offals (SBO)
ban in 1989.

"The statement concludes that the evidence that has accumulated
since the March 1996 announcement is consistent with the hypothesis
that nvCJD is caused by exposure to the BSE agent, and that no
evidence refuting the hypothesis has yet come to light. However,
SEAC regard the evidence to date as insufficient to constitute formal
scientific proof of a causative link, and that further data are
required before a firm conclusion can be reached. "

The latest information on nvCJD (new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob
disease)--the fatal condition tentatively linked to eating beef
infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)--was
revealed at the 20th International Congress of Chemotherapy in
Sydney, Australia (June 29‚July 3). Robert Will (National CJD
Surveillance Unit, Edinburgh, UK) said there are 18 confirmed
cases and one probable case of nvCJD in the UK plus one confirmed
case in France. There is no discernable trend in the rate of
occurrence of nvCJD cases and "it is impossible to say whether
there will be a handful more cases or thousands". If cases continue
to occur at the current rate, it may be 4 years before the likely
total number of cases can be estimated.

John Collinge (St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, UK)
described how abnormal prion protein PrPres from patients with
nvCJD has a distinct glycoform pattern very similar to PrPres
from BSE-infected animals. But, for BSE PrPres to infect human
beings it must cross a species barrier and Collinge reported that
studies in a humanised mouse model show that there is an effective
species barrier between the BSE agent and human beings. This
finding may mean the nvCJD epidemic will be small.

Paul Brown (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA) said
that many drugs, from antineoplastics to vitamin C, have been
unsuccessfully tried as therapies for CJD. Since CJD is an
infectious amyloidosis, attempts are being made to direct therapy
against amyloid accumulation. Sulphonated glycosaminoglycans have
such an action in vitro but only work in a mouse scrapie model if
given close to the time of infection. Doxorubicin, another
amyloid-binding drug, also delays experimental disease onset.
Brown pointed out that for any therapy to be useful, a test for early
infection with the CJD agent is needed--there is no point in
stabilising patients with advanced disease.

Pattison on nvCJD epidemic

British scientists says they were wrong about v-cjd "epidemic"

June 16, 1997
NMA/LEAN TRIMMINGS
Erica Smith

Reported in Britain's Sunday Telegraph on June 8, 1997, Professor John
Pattison, who heads the Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee
(SEAC) whose report linking BSE with the variant CJD last year instigated
a beef crisis in Europe, conceded before a conference in London that the
nvCJD epidemic that was once strongly predicted will now not occur.

--------------

Charles Arthur: I wonder which conference? I was at a press conference last Wednesday, 25th
June, about the possible burning of MBM in cattle stations. John Pattison
was there for SEAC so afterwards Tim Radford (science editor, The Guardian)
and I tackled him about the CJD figures. Just to keep up to date.

He said:

"About the link [between BSE and v-CJD], I think that the
information over the past 12-15 months has increased the probability [that
it exists].. nothing has come out against it."

"The rate of increase is reassuringly low. But I
still think - well, I was the guy who said there might be - note, might be
- no more cases, or there might be a large number, in the hundreds of
thousands. I now think that the number of new cases seen in 1996 are such
that the probability of an epidemic affecting hundreds of thousands is so
implausible that I have discounted it.

"But it's still too early to go any further down. The top end of
the prediction has disappeared."

He clarified that this still meant you
could have tens of thousands of cases, because you don't know what's going
to happen with the valine homozygotes at c129 and the c129 heterozygotes.
He said that so far all but 2 or 3 cases have been genotyped and are
methionine homozygotes at c129.

John Pattison is far too careful with his words; I simply can't understand
the report claiming he said it would be hundreds. I don't think he would go
for such a reversal - that is, allowing now that you could have tens of
thousands in the long term.

An analysis of the latest figures for BSE has led scientists to speculate
that in some cases cows may catch the disease from one another - so-called
horizontal transmission. This is one explanation for an anomaly in the
figures for the epidemic which shows cows from larger herds seem to be more
at risk of the disease. Another possibility is that they may have been fed
more contaminated feed.

Professor Roy Anderson of Oxford University's Department of Zoology, was
quoted as saying: "We're not able to discriminate between the two at the
moment but we can say via analysis that the level of this extra
transmission is at such a low level that it will have no material influence
on the future of the epidemic."

The article states that this is the first time there has been any
suggestion that horizontal transmission may be taking place. The article
goes on to say that the analysis also shows that the BSE epidemic is
declining faster than had been forecast, according to the report.

Last year, BSE declined exactly as predicted: scientists had forecast that
in 1996 there would be 7,386 new cases. In fact there were 7,300. [actually 8,000 -- webmaster] This year
scientists had forecast 4,100 new cases but there should be fewer than
3,000 cases. That is because the cattle cull is removing cows which would
otherwise have developed the disease.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture said:

"We have known from the
early days that larger herds were more exposed to BSE. But the overwhelming
evidence is that spread of the disease was through contaminated feed. In
all instances of the contaminated feed being destroyed the number of cows
contracting BSE has dropped accordingly. But there may be subsidiary forms of BSE transmission, such as horizontal
or maternal transmission which Professor Anderson talks of, which cannot
be ruled out."

He added such hypotheses had little scientific evidence to back them up at
the moment, but they were reasonable speculations.
The number of infected cattle in 1996 was 8,000, not 7,300, he added.

The article goes on to say that horizontal transmission has been
effectively proven in sheep with scrapie. Microbiologist Professor Richard
Lacey comments that it was assumed this would happen with other species.
He also said he believed farmers were being discouraged from reporting new
outbreaks of BSE because the Government had reduced compensation payments
and he called for a full independent inquiry into the issue.

The article then quotes, Ben Gill, deputy president of the National
Farmers' Union, who said that he understood that the finding that
horizontal transmission was possible was "purely hypothetical" and that he
understood that Prof Anderson had been aiming to show that horizontal
transmission was highly unlikely.

He also said: "There does seem to be more incidence of BSE in larger herds.
By far the most likely reason for this is that larger herds are more
intensive and were more likely to have been given `straight' feed, when it
was contaminated in the 1980s."

"Horizontal transmission cannot be ruled out, but it also has not been
proved. No one can disprove it but we certainly don't believe it exists."
He added: "Even if there is any form of horizontal transmission, it is at
such an extremely low level as to be almost negligible in effect and will
have no significance in the decline of the disease."

The Environment Agency said today that the risk of human infection
resulting from burning cattle cull waste in power stations would be
negligible following trial burnings of meat, bonemeal and tallow from
slaughtered cattle which were carried out under test conditions for
coal-fired power stations last year at Ratcliffe in Nottinghamshire and
Didcot in Oxfordshire. The results show the chances of a person
contracting CJD - the human equivalent of Mad Cow Disease - would be as low
as one in 30,000 million. This is 3,000 times less than the risk of death
by lightning.

The article reports that risk assessments on the other disposal options for
the waste including cattle carcass and meat and bonemeal incinerators were
also conducted. In all cases, results showed that in one year no
individual would be likely to consume more than a minute fraction -
significantly less than one millionth part - of the dose of BSE infectivity
needed to cause infection in humans. Dr David Slater, Director of
Environmental Protection is quoted as saying, "Our studies show that the
risk to both the public and the environment from the waste disposal options
related to the cattle cull is negligible. However, this certainly does not
mean that the Agency is giving blanket approval to applications." The
article goes on to say that approval would only be given if the Agency was
satisfied all the legal requirements were met.

Every application will be rigorously assessed and there will be widespread
public consultation before a decision is taken. Professor John Pattison,
chairman of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) told
journalists at a London news conference that his committee fully endorsed
the agency's conclusions.

Dr Stuart Stearn, coordinator of the Environment Agency's technical studies
is quoted as saying, "The chief medical officer in common with other
authorities has suggested a one-in-a-million risk might be considered
negligible. But we are well below that in all the paths we have
considered." The story concludes by saying seven applications have been
received to build incinerators but that they will be subject to very tough
planning controls and inquiries before any approval is given.

The article seems to imply that some infectivity IS transmitted to the air. Or the calculation may be based on an older microwave incineration experiment at NIH --webmaser

A beef mafia is feeding off EU subsidies paid for farm exports,
said
a leading Euro MP in Brussels today.
German social democrat Dagmar Roth-Behrendt -- who chairs a
special
European Parliament committee set up to monitor follow-up to an
inquiry
into the mad cow crisis -- called for sweeping reform of the subsidy
system.

She was speaking after details emerged of a beef fraud involving
illegal exports of at least 700 tonnes of British beef to Russia,
Bosnia
and Egypt.
Ms Roth-Behrendt said a Belgian company that carried out the
fraud
had been created last year. 'A lot points to the fact that the
Belgian
company which took the lead in the fraud was set up in 1996 with the
aim
of getting round the ban on British beef exports,' she said.
'The EU farm export subsidies system in place today is an
incentive
to criminals who want to pocket millions of ECU. The latest fraud by
a
beef mafia that may well be internationally organised is once more
proof
that the system of export subsidies has to be changed immediately.'

Ms Roth-Behrendt repeated her call for tougher controls to
enforce
the law. 'What is the point of passing new laws if we cannot enforce
them,' she said.
'The interests of consumers must be given greater priority. It
must
be made clear that if the confidence, the safety and the health of
consumers is in danger we must be strict.'
Referring to the latest scandal, Ms Roth-Behrendt said: 'We are
still in the area of speculation but we are confident that we will
soon
have more information on the amount of beef involved and the countries
that the beef went to.'

Fraudsters involved in a mad cow beef racket must be caught and
punished speedily, said a leading member of the European Parliament in
Brussels today.
Labour Euro MP Phillip Whitehead -- spokesman of the European
Parliament's Socialist Group on a special committee set up to monitor
follow-up to an inquiry report completed earlier this year -- spoke
out
as details emerged in Brussels of a 700-tonne export racket.

He said: 'The United Kingdom is absolutely committed to stamping
out beef smuggling just as it is to the general campaign against EU
fraud.
'Wherever this racket originated, those involved in Britain
should
be caught and punished speedily -- nor morally as law breakers but for
the disgraceful way in which they could have impaired the UK's
rebuilding
of confidence in the production, inspection and surveillance of our
beef
products.'

2 July 1997 European Commission
An astonishing fraud involving the illegal export 700 tonnes of
British beef during the height of the mad cow crisis was exposed in
Brussels today.

The European Commission won praise for its speedy action in
uncovering the scandal from the leading campaigner on mad cow disease,
German social democrat Euro MP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt.
The fraudsters operating at a firm in Belgium obtained beef
slaughtered in Britain, cut off its British stamps, re-stamped it as
Belgian and gave it false papers identifying it as Belgian, according
to
European Union sources.

The beef was then exported to Russia, Egypt and Bosnia. Some
beef
may also have gone to Spain and France, the sources revealed.

Ms Roth-Behrendt said: 'I welcome the speedy action of the
Commission and their announcement that they will investigate the lack
of
control on the export ban.
'Those who tried to get round the ban and deliberately endanger
the
health of consumers are guilty of a despicable criminal act.
'We have to fight such criminals with all the means at our
disposal.
I welcome the fact that the new British farm minister has the same
view.

'The difficult task of the Commission and the BSE follow-up
committee in the European Parliament in trying to regain consumer
confidence after the mad cow crisis is jeopardised by these criminal
acts.
'Controls on beef exports must be stepped up in all countries,
not
just in the UK. All member countries have to review their control
measures to see if they are adequate.
'Controls must not only be in place on paper but must be carried
out
on the ground.'

CAIRO -- Following the disclosure that British beef had been exported to
the Netherlands, Russia and Egypt with Belgian help despite an imposed ban
(FSnet passim), Egypt banned any imports of beef from Belgium. The
article reports that a Ministry of Supply and Trade statement published on
Friday said the ban was effective immediately in response to the European
Commission announcement. The article also reports that there were no
figures for exports of Belgian beef to Egypt and that the Belgian embassy
was closed on Friday.

Supply and Trade Minister Ahmed Gueily also ordered
steps intended to ensure that beef in Egyptian markets was free from
disease. Egypt has aimed in the past to prevent the incidence of
so-called mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It banned
imports in January of Irish cattle ready for slaughter although in June,
Ireland's agriculture ministry said Egypt had agreed to resume imports.

The Government is investigating claims by the European Commission
that quantities of British beef have been illegally exported to other
member states and into Egypt and Russia.

The allegations, which came last Wednesday, the day the NFU and the
Government launched legal action against the EU for imposing the beef
export ban, has seriously damaged the reputation of the British beef
industry at a time when the trade was at last beginning to regain some
confidence.

The Commission said it was examining whether legal action should be
taken against the UK for failing to properly enforce the export
restrictions.

The Commission says around 1,600 tonnes of British beef was exported
from the UK to Holland where Belgian companies fraudulently declared
it to be of Belgian origin. Seven hundred tonnes were seized by the
Dutch authorities and around 200 tonnes were confiscated after
Egyptian authorities rejected it. The remaining 700 tonnes may have
been exported to Russia. The Commission believes the beef was being
exported to Russia and Egypt by French operators.

A spokesman said the Commission was satisfied with member states'
immediate response in terms of reinforcing their import controls and
said it intended to do all it could to end the fraudulent practice. A
spokesman for the Government confirmed the claim was being
investigated but declined to comment further.

EU expert comes to Germany to check beef shipment

July 8, 1997
Reuter

SCHWERIN, Germany -- A European Union expert arrived on the northern German
island of Ruegen on Tuesday to examine 170 tonnes of beef which officials
suspect is British meat exported in defiance of a worldwide ban. The
shipment will be examined to establish its country of origin in response to
the disclosure by the European Commission that 1,600 tonnes of British beef
had been exported illegally, with Belgian help, to the Netherlands, Russia
and Egypt.The ministry said it suspected the beef discovered on the island had been
relabelled in Belgium and was to be transported to Russia.

BONN -- The suspect cargo of illegally exported British beef, found by
German officials on Monday, was seized at the port of Mukran on the island
of Ruegen according to the agriculture ministry in the northern state of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern The relabeled and falsely declared cargo would have
passed through Germany en route to Russia. A ministry statement was issued saying "There was no danger at any stage of
this meat reaching the German market."

EU warns belgium on meat companies

July 4, 1997
AP

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Commission spokesman Klaus van der Pas said
the EU may seek to pull the licenses of two Belgian firms unless Belgium
prosecutes them vigilantly. This following the disclosure on Thursday
that 1,600 tons of British beef was exported to the Netherlands, Egypt and
Russia in recent weeks (FSnet passim). Two Belgian exporters have been
implicated in the exports, making use of what the EU has called Britain's
"manifestly inadequate" export controls.

The article reports that on
Thursday, the EU said it was up to individual governments to pursue
importers of British beef but it took a tougher stance Friday saying it
would take legal action if violators of the beef ban get away with it at
home. Sources said that was a signal to EU capitals that the European
Commission wants them to implement EU law in a serious manner for the sake
of retaining consumer confidence in beef.

BRUSSELS -- In a follow-up to the smuggling stories from yesterday, the
European Commission said that 1,600 tonnes of British beef had illegally
been exported to the Netherlands, Russia and Egypt. 700 tonnes had been
seized by Dutch authorities after being exported via Belgium and the
remaining 900 tonnes had probably been exported to Russia and Egypt, said
Nikolaus van der Pas, spokesman for the Commission.

Van der Pas denied
press reports that British beef had been fraudulently marketed in France
and Spain and could not confirm reports of exports to other third
countries such as Bosnia. The article reports that when the Commission
would not disclose how much meat was suspected to have been smuggled and
to where, the rest of the EU was outraged.

The Commission then decided
to release the information. Van der Pas said the British beef sold in the
Netherlands had been marketed as being from Belgium. He also said that
the Commission was pleased that concern over the illegal exports had
prompted a tightening up of inspections by EU authorities. The article
also stated that Van der Pas had no information on press reports
suggesting a syndicate of British army troops were involved in the beef
scam.

Portugal has not received illegal uk beef

July 3, 1997
Reuter

LISBON -- Diario Economico, a Lisbon newspaper, has reported that Portugal
imported 673.3 tonnes of beef from Britain after the ban on British beef
exports was imposed by the EU. They also reported that the imports,
however, were legal. The beef was imported from Britain between April
1996 and March of 1997. The newspaper quoted Pedro Ribeiro, a senior
Agriculture Ministry official, as saying that beef imported by Portugal
had been re-exported by British companies after arriving mainly from the
U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. He was also quoted as saying
that the European Commission had told Portugal that it was not on the list
of nations that had broken the embargo and that the imports were conducted
by companies "authorized by the European Commission and subject to special
controls."

Paris probes suspected banned british beef exports

July 2, 1997
Reuter

PARIS -- In a related story, the French Agriculture Ministry is
investigating whether 60 tonnes of British beef had been shipped to France
in violation of a European ban intended to guard against the spread of the
disease to humans. The European Commission said earlier in the day that
it was considering legal action against Britain for illegal exports of
unspecified quantities of British beef to countries in the European Union
and elsewhere.

The article reports that EU Food Safety Commissioner Emma
Bonino told Italian television that British beef had been exported to four
EU countries: Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and France. The French farm
ministry said falsified health stamps had alerted it to the possibility
that the meat might be banned British beef. The meat has been seized and
will remain under lock and key while the investigation continues. The
article goes on to say that the ministry tried to reassure French
consumers by stressing that its system of inspections of meat coming into
France prevented the banned beef getting onto the market and that customs,
veterinary and anti-fraud officials would remain on alert to assure the
embargo on British beef was respected.

Smugglers defying british beef ban, says Brussels

July 2, 1997
PA News

In yet another article on the smuggling of British beef onto the European
market, the European Commissions condemned Britain's policing of the ban
as "obviously inadequate" and said it was considering whether to take this
country to court. The article states the the commission would not say
where the smuggling was taking place, how much beef was involved and how
long it had been going on.

A Ministry of Agriculture spokesman is quoted
as saying, "We take all allegations seriously and of course we will be
looking into the matter." and a spokeswoman for the National Farmers
Union stated, "We condemn any lawbreaking which could undermine consumer
and producer confidence." However, she also stated that, "We find it
quite astonishing that the commission is prepared to make such
allegations, but isn't currently providing detailed evidence. The public
needs to know."

The article goes on to say that the smuggling does not
appear to be widespread but appeared to come from one source. Also, the
smuggling involved meat, not live animals. The story goes on to cite
Philip Whitehead, a member of the European Parliament's BSE committe and a
Labour Euro-MP, who says that 700 tonnes of British beef had been seized
recently but that he did not know how much had been smuggled in total. He
is also quoted as saying, "I believe that any British nationals involved
in this should be apprehended and dealt with according to the full rigour
of the law.

Everyone involved in our beef industry, which is now
regaining its strength and confidence, will know perfectly well that if
stupid and selfish individuals have tried to cooperate with some
international scam they have done themselves and their industry down."

Russia imports 730 tonnes of british beef-minister

July 10, 1997
Reuter

MOSCOW --Viktor Khlystun, Russia's agriculture minister was quoted as
saying Russia has imported 730 tonnes of British beef subject to a
worldwide ban because of mad cow disease. He did not give a precise date
for the import of the beef, which he said came via Belgium, nor did he say
to where in Russia it was delivered. According to the articles source, he
also declined to say whether the meat had already gone on sale. The
announcement marked the first time the Russian government has recognised
the imports of large quantities of banned beef. Officially, Russia has not
imported British beef since 1990.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry was quoted Thursday saying, it was
"practially impossible" to import poor quality meat into Russia legally but
the agriculture ministry said it could not block all illegal channels.

Khlystun said: "Preventing the import of contaminated meat is in principle
impossible, although we have mobilised frontier guards and veterinary
services. There is no legal or moral ground for banning beef imports from
Belgium."

"There is no 100 percent guarantee that Russian importers will not import
one or more cargo of British beef."

"Even if we checked every car crossing the border, it is not possible to
prevent (such imports), insofar as there is no way to diagnose bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)."

This week, German authorities seized an unspecified quantity of beef
imported from Belgium which they believed came illegally from Britain and
was headed for Russia via Germany.

Farmers lobby EU chief over beef

July 11, 1997
PA News
Jo Butler

A delegation of more than 200 local farmers led by National Farmers' Union
President Sir David Naish was meeting Mr Fischler at the Royal Welsh
Agricultural Show in Builth Wells. They are angry over planned cuts in
compensation to beef farmers.

Last month Europe agreed to Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham's request
for a 11% cut in compensation to farmers for cattle over 30 months old
slaughtered in the BSE eradication programme.
Angry farmers say the cut represents a drop in the price per kg for cattle
from 64.9p to 57.7p.
The changes are due to come into effect on August 4.

11 July 1997 EP
The EP committee on mad cow disease is to hold a series of high profile
meetings in Strasbourg next week -- first with Commissioners, then with
the British farm minister and finally with the President of the EU Farm
Council.

Commissioners Emma Bonino and Franz Fischler are to appear before the
committee from 18h00 to 21h30 on Monday 14 July in room 9 of the Palais
de l'Europe. The commissioners are to make statements on a breach by
smugglers of a ban on British beef exports.

British farm minister Jack Cunningham is to meet the committee from
17h30
to 19h00 on Tuesday 15 July in Palais 5 -- the first time a British farm
minister has met an EP committee on the issue since the mad cow crisis
began. Dr Cunningham's predecessor, Tory Douglas Hogg, persistently
refused invitations to speak to a parliamentary committee of inquiry.

The committee is to meet Luxemburgish farm minister Fernand Boden,
President of the Agriculture Council, for further talks on Thursday 17
July from 15h00 in Palais 5.
German social democrat Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (tel 03-88175453) chairs the
committee. The Socialist Group spokesman on the committee is Labour MEP
Phillip Whitehead (tel 03-88175459).

The committee's task is to monitor follow-up to an EP inquiry committee
report earlier this year drawn up by Spanish Socialist Manuel Medina
(tel
03-88175882).

The Parliament is to decide in the autumn whether or not to sack the
European Commission for its handling of the mad cow crisis.
Dagmar Roth-Behrendt will give a press briefing at 11h30 on Wednesday 16
July in the Press Centre.

Questions Remaining

1) How much beef was smuggled, from where to where and when?
2) Who smuggled the beef and who else is involved in the smuggle?
3) How was the beef smuggled and how was it possible to get around the controls?
4) How was the smuggling discovered, who discovered it and what happened then?
5) Where is the beef now, what will happen next and what danger is there for the population?